Way back in the day, great stories were written in the form of epic poems.

The Iliad told the story of the Trojan War – a decades long battle started when the Trojan prince, Paris ran off with Helen, the wife of a Greek King. The Greeks invaded Troy, resulting in a war that lasted 20 years and destroyed an entire civilization. After that war ended, one of the Greek generals, Odysseus, tried to go home.

The Odyssey told his story, and how he incurred the wrath of the god Poseidon and secured the aid of the goddess Athena who battled with one another to prevent him from getting/help him to get home. Along the way he fights monsters, storms, and curses for years and years.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of a Mesopotamian King. Beowulf tells the tale of a fierce Norse warrior called upon to save his whole society. The legend of King Arthur, the fictional king that was said to unite all the tribes of great Britain, is another epic tale. The common thread among all these stories are fantastical adventures that cover vast place and time.

In more recent times, stories like Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Redwall, and more for adults, The Dark Tower and A Game of Thrones have all been called modern day epics due to the incredible scope, fantastical characters, and exciting adventures in each of these tales.

I’m going to argue that one more story should be added to this incredible list – Bone.

Some people look at the Bone graphic novels and immediately discount them as “little kid” books, because the main characters look like silly kids’ cartoons. And it’s true – Fone Bone, Phony Bone, and Smiley Bone are goofy and cartoony – at least in the beginning of the nine book series. Don’t let that fool you. They still have exactly what it takes to be great characters. The three Bone cousins are up there with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy or Bugs, Daffy, and Porky, or even Frodo, Samwise, Merry, and Pippen from The Lord of the Rings.

Fone Bone is the Mickey/Bugs. He’s serious, he’s normal, and he’s loyal. Phony is Donald/Daffy Duck – he’s angry, he’s temperamental, and he’s selfish. Smiley Bone is just like Goofy or Porky – he’s happy, he’s silly, and he’s there for comic relief. Now just imagine that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy find themselves in Middle Earth fighting the forces of evil for the future of mankind. That’s Bone.

These cartoony cousins have somehow stumbled into another world, a world in which an evil being called the Lord of the Locusts is trying to take over. There are incredible bad guys, treacherous journeys, daring rescues, perilous battles, and all the other things great epics need – evil villains; a chosen one growing into their role as hero; mystical animals like dragons, giant mountain lions, and the horrible rat creatures.

Over the course of the 9 books in the series (plus a prequel story called Rose and a supplement called Bone: Tall Tales), you get as much drama, action, adventure, mystery, and good vs. evil as you do in Lord or the Rings, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, or Harry Potter.

Like any great story – epic poem, graphic novel, or prose story – the only bad thing about the Bone series is that it had to end. It’s a great ending, but I would have loved 9 more books instead. Thank goodness some one else agrees, because there’s now a new Bone series – new characters and a new adventure in a series of illustrated novels (think Diary of a Whimpy Kid or Wonderstruck) called Bone: Quest for the Spark. Those new books are definitely on my “to-read” list.

I’ll admit it… I’m not a huge fan of non-fiction books. There’s just something about an interesting character or a twisting and turning plot that I love, and most non-fiction lacks those qualities.

It’s weird, when I was a kid – probably from 4th through 7th grade – about all I read was non-fiction. I couldn’t get enough about animals, dinosaurs, ancient mythology, and marine biology. Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I read every book that my public library had on those topics – but I never read a book about China or cars or chickens or crafts. There were just a few topics that really worked for me.

I was really into marine biology, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what it was about that subject that hooked me, so I asked my mom if she remembered. She did. She said it was one book – a fictional story about a boy in the Pacific Northwest who rescues an injured seal. After that, I couldn’t get enough about aquatic animals and marine research. I guess sometimes it just takes one thing to trigger that.

None of this has anything to do with Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum, except to say that I don’t think non-fiction texts were written like this one back in the day. If they had been filled with clever writing, fun illustrations, and an interesting part of history – perhaps I would have read more.

Meghan McCarthy’s got a ton of books like this one – strange little moments in history that won’t be in the text books (maybe that’s why the textbooks are so boring), but give you an insight into a unique moment in time. This one, which is nominated for the Monarch Award (Illinois award for best book grades 1-3), tells about Walter Diemer, a pencil-pusher for a candy company who decides that chewing gum would be so much more fun if you could blow bubbles – so he works and works and works some more, eventually coming up with bubble gum.

There’s a lot here – unsung history, an interesting character, a lesson in innovation and determination, and some really fun illustrations. Meghan McCarthy’s other books will definitely be on my list for my next library visit. Who knows, maybe she’ll make a non-fiction reader out of me yet.

I love the start of the school year. There’s so many cool things about it. Here’s a top 10 list of my favorite things.

10. My desk is clean. I’m a pretty organized person… except my desk. My desk is usually a mess. I know where every single thing is in that mess, but the pile of junk might fall over and injure someone at any moment. I like the beginning of the year, because I have a chance to make brand new piles of desk mess.

9. All the markers work. At the end of the year it seems that all the white-board markers are just about dried out. I might have 40 markers on the tray, but none of them write dark enough. However, every fall the markers are bright and bold and write perfectly. I love that.

8. The clean smell. By January the whole place smells like old snow boots, there’s the whole thing about the funky gym clothes stank, and there’s always some kid that leaves a tuna sandwich in his locker for waaaaaaay longer than a tuna sandwich should be in a locker (just so you know, the rule on how long a tuna sandwich should be in a locker is a maximum of four hours). Today, this week, for the next few weeks, the school smells great.

7. Brand new notebooks. I love that all the spirals a brand spankin’ new. No one has the weird crinkly edge parts pouring out of the book, no one has the wire all bent up so there’s one long sticky-outy part hanging out 5 inches from the paper and stabbing everyone you walk by, and no one has to search through a gazillion pages full of doodles and drawings to find a piece of fresh paper – it’s all fresh paper.

6. It’s the start of the football season. I know this has nothing to do with school, but football and the start of the school year go hand in hand in my mind.

5. The teachers are so excited. Teaching is like no other job. No one else, except maybe professional athletes, gets a three month break from their job, then come back and it all starts over. It’s the same, but different. Teaching never gets boring, especially at the beginning of the year.

4. I get to meet with my TAP kids soon. What the heck is a TAP kid? I run a club called the Minooka Travel Abroad Program (TAP). Each year we take a group of 8th graders on a trip to a foreign country. The last five years we’ve traveled to Germany, Greece, Turkey, Italy, England, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and Japan! In 2012 we’re headed to England with about 40 kids from Minooka. It takes a lot of work to get ready for an 8th grade trip to another country, so we meet every Wednesday during the school year to get prepared. We take the summer off from meetings, so I can’t wait to get back to getting the kids ready for our trip. No, sorry – 6th grade kids can’t go on the trip, but the good news is that they can join the club, participate in tons of cool activities, and get ready for a trip in 3 years!

3. My friends. Yup, I have friends at school too. A lot of the teachers are friends of mine, but I don’t get to see them much over the summer. I can’t wait to hear about trips they took and the things they did. The first few weeks of school are great for catching up with my friends.

2. Making new friends. Okay, I’m going to be your teacher, so maybe we’re not going to be exactly friends, but I am excited to meet you. We’re going to spend a whole year together, do some fun projects, and learn a ton, so I’m always excited to see new faces in my classroom. Not only that, but I like meeting new parents. I like forming a team with them to help their student be successful – a new year means new challenges and new people. Both of those are great things.

1. It’s a clean slate. I’m going to be honest. I made a few mistakes last year. There are somethings I want to do differently, there are a few things I want to make sure I don’t do again, and there’s a handful of new things I’d love to try out. With a new school year I get a clean slate, a second chance, a fresh start. So do you! If you slacked off last year, if you caused trouble, if you were disorganized, or didn’t study hard enough, or talked out of turn, or were always late… I have great news. None of your 6th grade teachers know that, so you have a clean slate – a new year is a fresh start to make a new and better you. I’m going to try to make a new and better me, so maybe you should too.

I can’t wait to see everyone on the first day. It’s going to be a great year. Well, it’s going to be great as long as we all remember the tuna sandwich rules.

For those of you that would like to get a jump on things, here’s a few parts of this website that might give you a good idea of what to expect from 6th grade Language Arts/Literature with Mr. Curtis.

There’s Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Once and Future King, and countless other fantasy novels that can lay the claim to the “be all end all,” the best of the best, the one series that defines the genre. I’m here today to ask people to consider Jeff Smith’s epic graphic novel series Bone for that title as well.

The world of Bone is every bit as detailed, well thought out, and endless in scope as Narnia. It’s heroes, the Bone cousins (Fone, Phoney, and Smiley) are as fantastic as Frodo and Samwise. The reluctant “Chosen One,” Thorn, is as compelling as Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, and Neo from the Matrix. Plus, unlike most of those other stories, Bone also has some hilarious moments.

I haven’t finished the 9 book series just yet, but the first 6 books make up the first two of three trilogies that tell the entire story of Fone Bone, a marshmallowy looking creature who, along with his scam-artist cousin Phoney and his goofball cousin Smiley, stumble into “the valley,” a world of mythological monsters and medieval villages.

The cousins are separated at first, finding themselves in an ancient world on the verge of war. A mysterious hooded figure is trying to awake evil spirits of the past, aided by the rat creatures, a vicious breed of carnivorous monsters. The Bones are befriended by the last remaining humans in the valley, including Thorn, a beautiful, but sad heroine, Gran’ma Ben, and Lucious, the owner of the Barrelhaven Tavern.

As the story unfolds, more bad guys show up, twists and turns abound, and the characters become some of the strongest ever seen in the fantasy genre.

So far, I’ve read Bone 1-6. They were the 80th, 81st, 83rd, 87th, 88th, and 90th books I’ve read this summer. I have three more Bone books to read to finish Bone’s quest, but my quest to read 90 books in 90 days over summer break is over.

If you want to learn how to write a good hook for a piece of fiction, see an example how to grab a reader’s attention and make them – force them to – command them to- want to read more, then read the first pages of Amulet Vol. 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi.

From the opening scene of this amazingly drawn graphic novel, you’re hooked. You can’t wait to find out what happens, and, unlike a lot of fantasy stories, you don’t get bogged down in a bunch of exposition from there. Kibuishi finds a way to weave the rules of his world and the lives of his characters into the story.

Emily and Navin have just lost their dad. Mom has moved them away from everything they know, moving them into a giant, spooky house that you can feel must be loaded with secrets. Right away you see, just outside of view of the characters, a ghosty, misty spirit lurking in the shadows. Suddenly, things get real.

The children’s mom is eaten by the spirit, and the kids, giving chase to the creature, get sucked into some sort of alternate dimension where Emily’s new found amulet seems to be a source of power that can both help her and has the baddies after her.

The action is non-stop, the characters fun and interesting, and the world of Amulet is intriguing. I can’t wait to read book 2.

This fantastic graphic novel was the 79th book I’ve read this summer on my quest to finish 90 books in 9o days over break.

I love picture book biographies. The regular biographies, when well done, can be fantastic books, but let’s be honest here – sometimes they can be a bit dry and boring. I can’t do dry and boring.

Picture book biographies, on the other hand, usually offer a really cool spin on certain aspects of a subject’s life, with awesome pictures. This one, The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, is exactly that. This book is about the marine scientist/inventor/television pioneer – Jacques Cousteau, and it skips all the boring stuff that puts you to sleep and just gets to the really interesting parts of Cousteau’s life.

First, that he was very sick and weak as a kid, but used water to strengthen his muscles, starting a life long love affair with the sea. Second, that a chance gift of some goggles, started him on a quest to explore deeper and deeper and deeper in the world’s oceans, forcing him to invent equipment that no one thought possible to reach his goals. Then, the desire he had to share what he was seeing under the sea and creating undersea cameras so that TV shows could be filmed, showing the whole world what he was seeing. Finally, Cousteau’s desire to protect the oceans from mankind, who had polluted everywhere else in the world already.

In just 32 pages, Dan Yaccarino touches on all those aspects of Cousteau’s amazing life, leaving some readers with just enough information, but sending others (like me) right to Wikipedia to read more and to YouTube to watch Cousteau’s videos. That’s the sign of a good book right there.

This one was recommended to me by some teachers I talk to on Twitter, and I’ll be passing the recommendation on to any kids who have any interest in sea exploration or marine biology.

This summer, I’ve been on a quest to finish 90 books in the 90 days we have off from school. This book was #78.

All summer long I’ve been slowly working my way through the Babymouse series. Honestly, I’ve seen students reading these for years, and they’ve always frustrated me a little – I was of the opinion that they were baby books and had nothing of value for 6th graders. Boy, was I wrong.

These books are fantastic for 6th graders. They’re loaded with connections to other texts, to movies, to TV shows, to history, and to real life. They’re all about imagination, living your dreams, and being happy with who you are. What could be more appropriate for 12 year olds?

There are a few Babymouse books that never seem to be in at my local library – Like #4, Babymouse: Rockstar – would someone please return that already – but this week I just decided to read all the ones they had, even if they weren’t in the right order (order doesn’t really matter with this series).

First, I read Babymouse: The Musical, which is the 10th book in the series. As the school drama coach, and a theatre major in college, this one was one of my favorites. Babymouse’s little imaginings took her into some famous musicals. The part I liked best was when she found herself in The Phantom of the Opera, because just last month I was in that famous Opera House in Paris. It’s always fun when the books you read surprisingly connect with things you’ve done in life.

Next was Babymouse: Dragonslayer, the 11th book. This one ties in all sorts of popular stories from fantasy – Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and, in a really fun way that is typical Babymouse, the Narnia stories. This, I think, was my favorite Babymouse so far.

I had to skip a few books, but after Dragonslayer, I read Babymouse: Mad Scientist (#14). This one was a clever way to introduce Jennifer and Matt Holm’s other graphic novel series – Squish. In this story, Babymouse is working on a science fair project about amoebas, and happens to find Squish. I’ve already read the first two Squish books, but I imagine kids reading this for the first time, then finding Squish in his own adventures will be pretty excited.

The 15th book, A Very Babymouse Christmas, was another fun one. Not as clever as some of the other ones, but still a good book.

Finally, I read #9, Puppy Love. This one is a hilarious look at Babymouse trying to find just the right pet for her. Look for the scene in which we find out what happens to all of the past pets she’s had that have escaped. Typical Babymouse right there.

I hope I can get my hands on the few Babymouse stories I haven’t read so far, but I know one thing’s for sure – I will be recommending these to kids in my class this year. I judged these books by their cover early on, but I’ve learned my lesson now.

These five Babymouse books were the 77th, 82nd, 85th, 86th, and 89th. I’m reviewing them here a little out of order, but I’m almost done with my quest to read 90 books in 90 days over break.